The final bullet on a PowerPoint slide
This isn’t one of mine, but a tip that I picked up whilst on a training session run by the Business to Business networking group that I belong to (www.bforb.co.uk) & it came from Paul Heath, from Ethical Business Mentoring Ltd (www.ethicalbusinessmentoring.co.uk) who was running the session.
Use your laptop as an autocue
| When using PowerPoint to aid a presentation, in an ideal world, we will be able to set up such that we can use the laptop that we’re using to run the presentation between us (the presenter) and the audience & use it as an autocue which will enable us to see what is up next on our slide deck and when we are about to make our final point on that slide. |
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However, on many occasions & for various reasons, we might not be able to achieve this; so how can we easily & confidently set up PowerPoint so that we will always know when we’ve reached the last point on a slide & not fall into the trap of thinking that we’re about to move on to a new slide only to be “thrown” by that final bullet point that we’d forgotten about?
Practice!
Obviously, a key answer is to avoid using bullet points & practice, practice, practice… but sometimes bulleted lists (whether with the actual bullets, or not!) are the most effective way of covering a topic and during the “adrenaline rush” (or nerves) that can accompany the delivery of a presentation, it can be easy to lose track.
So, what can we do?
The final bullet
Simply use a full stop after the FINAL bullet on the slide, only. Don’t end any of the other items on the slide with any punctuation & that way, the full stop will stand out & act as an aide-memoire that the next “click” will take you onto the next slide.
As with all such tips; simple, but effective!